


Don't You Forget About Me

by NoahK



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: improv game tho, some - Freeform, sorry - Freeform, theres some fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-10 13:35:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5587918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoahK/pseuds/NoahK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This wasn’t how the story was supposed to go. Plain and simple this just wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. They were all supposed to live such long and healthy lives. They were supposed to grow up and have lives. To graduate college. To be at each other’s weddings. To be parents and godparents and all that fun stuff. This just wasn’t how the story was supposed to go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't You Forget About Me

**Author's Note:**

> I'M SORRY in advance. I've been feeling the angst lately and needed a jump start and I was watching pitch perfect and I was like someone needs to die and then Jesse popped up and I'm sorry okay I'm sorry. 
> 
> Here have some damn sad shit... although there's some fluffy things here and there

This wasn’t how the story was supposed to go. Plain and simple this just wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. They were all supposed to live such long and healthy lives. They were supposed to grow up and have lives. To graduate college. To be at each other’s weddings. To be parents and godparents and all that fun stuff. This just wasn’t how the story was supposed to go. 

Jesse loved those sappy, cliche movies that Beca hated with a burning passion. She loved her best friend, she really did but honestly the movies were just a step too far. Although she wouldn’t watch them, well, that doesn’t mean that she didn’t listen to him talk about them. So when the time finally came to face the truth she couldn’t help but laugh at how cliche it all is. The whole let’s spread my ashes in the Grand Canyon shit was just  _ so _ Jesse. 

Beca didn’t want to do it at first. She didn’t feel like it was her place but the Swansons insisted that it was what Jesse would have wanted and so she couldn’t really say no. They handed off a small chunk of money with the urn so that Beca could afford the gas and hotel stops along the way. And in typical Jesse fashion he demanded that it be a road trip and was even further insistent upon a certain redhead accompanying her on the trip. 

“You ready?” Chloe asks popping her head through the door. Beca sighs but gets up anyway. She’s going to have to get it over with at some point.

“Can you drive?” Beca mumbles with the toss of her keys without hearing a response. Quite honestly she wasn’t really up to driving the first part of the trip. 

“No problem,” she agrees as they make their way to the front door. They quietly wave goodbye to all of the Bellas who see them leave but very little words are exchanged. Then again the other Bellas have definitely been treading in shallow water around Beca ever since the accident so it’s not much of a surprise. “So, why the Grand Canyon?”

“Cliche. Due Date,” Beca mutters simply, Chloe looks over at the other girl confused but waits for her to continue. “You know, like, the movie. Zach Galifianakis. Shit show of events leads to them having to roadtrip to get to LA, or whatever. On the way, Ethan, Zach’s character, stops at the Grand Canyon to spread his father’s ashes or something. It was one of Jesse’s favorites so.”

“Wow. Intricate. So, he wanted you to recreate some movie?”

“Not really recreate. But essentially. He’s just so cliche, ya know? He was practically a living, breathing movie nerd who, if he was given the chance, would make so many cliche movies,” Beca admits with a smile on her face that quickly slips when she realizes that these things won’t ever happen now. The cliches he could have made will never happen. But at least he’ll be able to live out one of those cliche movie moments.

“It’s sweet,” Chloe says with a smile. “Music?”

“Please,” Beca mumbles and takes the lead to find a station that was playing some tolerable music. Once she settled on a station she leaned back in her seat to stare out the window and watch the clouds whoosh by. 

Beca was still a bit numb to it all even though it’s now been a whole month since the accident and just over three weeks since Jesse has been gone. At first, there was some hope that he would be okay but then things went very, very wrong during surgery. Regardless the car accident still doesn’t seem real and the complications that followed are just a recurring nightmare that won’t go away. Or at least that’s what Beca keeps hoping. But every morning Beca wakes up and goes about her day just to remember that it’s so very real. 

In the first week she barely made it out of her room every day for the sheer fact that she couldn’t go more than two hours without crying. The second week she finally was able to leave her room but she didn’t go far. Every night she would dream of him only to remember when she was pouring her coffee or making toast that it was all just a dream and he’s really not there anymore. It was killing her inside. The third week was miserable, as well, but better than the previous two. By the fourth she had made it through the funeral and wake with a fake front of strength solely because she hated when people saw her cry. The only person who she’d even think of crying in front of is Chloe and she’s already seen quite a lot of it at this point. 

Beca knows all that cliche shit about how it gets better and it gets easier but that doesn’t help the current level that she’s at. She’s in that comfy zone of depression over the loss of one of her best friends. The roadtrip serves two purposes 1. do what Jesse wanted and 2. serve as some kind of closure. Or at least that’s what Beca hoped it would be like. 

“You okay?” Chloe asks after a long two hours of silence aside from the radio. 

“Just peachy,” Beca grumbled without tearing her eyes off the sky. 

“Do you want to stop in Arkansas or Texas tonight?”

“Arkansas has those hot springs, doesn’t it?” Beca wonders aloud. 

“I think so,” Chloe agrees with a smirk. 

“Can we stop there? Stay at a hotel near there?” Beca requests quietly.

“Of course,” Chloe smiles. “Hot springs sounds like a great plan to me.”

//

Beca can’t help but admit how much stopping in Hot Springs is worth it. Once the girls got there they were quick to get to the Quapaw Baths and Spa in order to get a good experience with the hot spring water.

“So, tomorrow we hit the road again and stop in Albuquerque. Does that sound good to you?” Chloe asks as she swims over to where the younger girl is sitting on the ledge. 

“Sounds good to me,” Beca chirps. Chloe watches Beca carefully as she just stares at her feet in the water and slowly moves them back and forth. 

“After this do you want to get dinner or just go back to the motel?”

“Dinner,” Beca replies simply. She picks her head up and looks at Chloe for a moment. “Then sleep. We should get up at a decent time to hit the road again.”

“Okay,” Chloe agrees without question. Honestly she didn’t really know what to do with Beca in this state. There wasn’t much she could do because Beca wasn’t really one to talk about her feelings especially in a case like this. 

“Don’t, Chlo,” Beca mumbles again. 

“What?”

“You have that look on your face. Just don’t okay. I’m fine. I’ll be fine,” Beca says and with the way she’s looking at Chloe she knows better than to cross her. 

“I didn’t say anything,” Chloe throws her hands up in defense. “We’ll get through this.”

“There’s that ‘we’ again,” Beca says with the roll of her eyes. “He wasn’t your best friend, Chloe. It’s different.”

“I know that. I’m just saying that I am here for you and  _ we _ are going to get through this,” Chloe explains motioning between the two of them. 

“Okay,” Beca grumbles as she turns away from the redhead. Honestly she was kind of getting tired of the whole “we’re gonna get through this” thing because it’s been said so many goddamn times at this point that it’s lost all meaning. Okay, well, maybe it’s a bit different coming out of Chloe’s mouth but Beca is stubborn so she’s just going to pretend that it’s not different. 

//

Beca didn’t expect the ride to Albuquerque to go by quite as fast as it is proving to go by. It’s when Chloe jumps up in her chair yelling that they’ve made it to New Mexico when Beca realizes how lost in her head she must have been. She supposes that maybe her driving makes quite the difference. That maybe how zoned out she’s gotten over the past couple of hours isn’t exactly a good thing to do while you’re driving. And maybe she shouldn’t think about that at all because it’s reminding her of all the potential situations that were going on in Jesse’s car moments before the accident occurred. And, okay, she really needs to just zone right back out again because she’s not having another meltdown over this right now. 

“You okay there?” 

“Fine,” Beca lies without tearing her eyes away from the road. She can still see Chloe out of the corner of her eyes and she can practically feel the hole she’s boring into her head with her eyes. 

“You’re lying to me,” Chloe huffs and without even looking Beca knows exactly what face she’s putting on. “You know I hate it when you lie to me.”

“I know,” Beca mumbles. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to think about it anymore.”

“Why don’t we play a game?”

“What?” Beca practically shouts shooting the girl a look that instantly makes Chloe nervous. 

“Just, you know, a road game. Like “I Spy” or short improv runs,” Chloe offers with a smile so wide it makes Beca’s cheeks hurt. “I’m leaning towards the latter but it’s your choice.”

“What do you mean by short improv runs?” Beca wonders. She instantly regrets asking because the second she does Chloe is practically jumping in her seat. 

“Basically, I’ll give a situation and then you act it out. And then vice versa. But they have to be short...let’s say under a minute,” Chloe decides. The redhead bops up and down repeatedly as Beca just sighs. And Chloe knows that sigh she knows exactly what it means. “I’ll go first to give you a solid example so you give me a situation and I’ll act it out. Whenever you’re ready.”

“Hypochondriac at the doctors,” Beca blurts out the first thing that comes to mind. The smile she gets in return to the scenario must mean that Chloe is satisfied. “And go.”

“I dunno, Doc. I think I have eczema because my skin is super super dry like all the time. But then again it gets red sometimes so maybe it’s psoriasis,” Chloe clucks throwing on an accentuated “typical white girl” voice that people often stereotype. “Google says it’s just dry skin but there’s, like, no way. Could it be skin cancer? That’s something else that came up.”

“Time,” Beca calls while choking back laughter. “I think I like this game.”

“Good. Now get ready,” Chloe hums in indecision giving Beca enough time to get nervous. “Forgetful actor. And go.”

“Shit, fuck,” Beca mumbles and for half a second Chloe can’t tell if it’s because of the scenario she chose or if she’s in character. “I’m sorry, like, shit. What’s the line again? I’m such shit at this. But I look pretty so that makes up for it...right? It totally does. But, yeah, what’s the line again? Oh, right. I’m ready. No, wait, shit. Dammit. What the fuck is the line?”

“Oh my god,” Chloe squeals in between fits of laughter. “That was perfection.”

“Thank you very much. You have an announcement at dinner with the family. Bonus: you’re pregnant,” Beca says with a laugh. Chloe stares at her for a second in shock but then goes off when Beca gives her a look.

“Hey, everyone! So, I’ve gathered you all here tonight to tell you two things. 1. I’m pregnant! Get ready for baby Beale. 2. This is my beautiful girlfriend that I’m having the kid with. So cheers everyone and enjoy your dinner,” Chloe finishes with a fake toast to her family. Beca stares at her in fits of giggles that Chloe soon joins in on.

“Geez, Chlo, you really took that to a whole different level,” Beca finally says. 

“Yeah, well, I figured we could get a kick out of it. And I sure did,” Chloe chuckles before turning back to the road to read the upcoming sign. “And, hey, look at that we’re almost there.”

“Yep.”

“One more scenario. Helping a friend, me, deal with short term memory loss,” Chloe decides with a devious smile. 

“Okay. For the last goddamn time...your name is Chloe. Yes, you’re a redhead. And, yes, people make that dumb ‘has no soul’ joke all the time. No, this is only temporary. No, I’m not your girlfriend yet despite what everyone keeps saying. Just ignore them,” Beca pauses realizing her stumble in words but quickly tries to cover it up. “It’s temporary. Don’t let them fool you into doing or saying anything stupid. Just listen to me because they keep feeding you bullshit and I’m tired of reassuring your mom that you aren’t going into prostitution afterall.”

“Hey,” Chloe yells with a slap to Beca’s arm. The other girl laughs in response as Chloe continues. “I take offense to that.”

“Oh, please. It’s not like you haven’t joked about doing it before,” Beca laughs as Chloe’s face corks into embarrassment. Because they both know damn well that Chloe has joked about it time after time again. And, hell, anyone who knew the redhead could attest to that. 

“Fine. I’ll let you have that one,” Chloe scoffs leaning back in her chair while she scans the town for a decent looking hotel. 

“Let me? Yeah, okay. Do you see anything that’s not a no tell motel?” Beca asks quietly. 

“So far no. But I’m thinking we could take anything that’s two stories. That’s, at least, a step up from those one ground floor places,” Chloe decides right as she finds one of the two story places she was talking about. “There seems okay. And it’s right next to the diner.”

“Good because I’m definitely in the mood for a burger with a milkshake. And fries, of course,” Beca adds in quickly. Chloe laughs because that’s just such a Beca thing but she can’t talk because Beca will easily throw her under the bus for her own choice in food. “And don’t for a second think that I don’t already know you’re getting disco fries.”

“Well, look at that Bae knows what I like,” Chloe says with a giggle following the glare Beca shot her. 

“Don’t ever call me bae in public,” Beca shouts her face screwed up in annoyance. “Never.”

“So, does that mean I can call you that when it’s just the two of us?”

“I guess,” Beca deflates, Chloe had her there but she definitely was not expecting that answer. She was more of thinking along the lines of Beca correcting herself not an agreement. Although this agreement can definitely work to the redhead’s advantage. 

Beca laughs when Chloe orders two servings of disco fries because, honestly, how could she not. Fries plus cheese plus gravy are not meant to be put together. 

“What?” 

“They’re so unhealthy, dude,” Beca declares with a grin. 

“Are you kidding me? You don’t get to say that to me, Mitchell,” Chloe squeals while she stares at Beca in disbelief.

“And why not?”

“Maybe because you’re the most unhealthy eater that I know. Are you kidding?” Chloe asks again. 

“I am not,” Beca mumbles shrinking back into the booth. 

“You are so,” Chloe retorts with a smirk. “Don’t even think about judging my disco fries or even asking for one when they come.”

“That’s not fair,” Beca squeals throwing her hands up in offense. Chloe’s smirk only grows more because she knows that as much as Beca will deny it she absolutely loves to pick at the disco fries once they’re actually on the table. 

“Totally fair. You insult them, or me, and you don’t get any,” Chloe quips. It’s when Beca begins to pout that the redhead thinks she’s being a little harsh on her. “Now if you were to say apologize maybe I’ll share a few.”

“A few?” Beca perks up at the notion.

“Maybe,” Chloe agrees holding up her finger. “Just maybe.”

“Okay,” Beca mumbles as she takes a deep breath. Because apparently apologizing for this one little thing was going to take a lot out of Beca. “I’m sorry for insulting your choice in food.”

“Thank you,” Chloe says with a smile. 

“So, can I have some?” Beca asks obviously hopeful.

“Sure,” Chloe giggles. “I’ve got plenty to share.”

//

While Beca hated to admit it she was finally starting to feel a little more herself. And she hated to admit it solely because she knew that this good mood was going to crash within the next day and who knows when it was going to come back. The only other thing that Beca is sure of is the fact that Chloe  _ will _ help her get back to, almost, normal again. And that shere fact is what’s going to be able to motivate her through this. 

“One more six hour drive and we’ll be there,” Chloe announces as she skips around to the driver’s side of the car. “We should be at the canyon by 2 pm.”

“Okay,” Beca mumbles instantly feeling herself drift away. “We’ll get lunch first when we get there and then go do this. Sound good?”

“Yep,” Chloe agrees easily because who is she to argue at a time like this. 

Chloe watches as Beca easily drifts off into her own thoughts and she’s not really sure on how to pull her out. Right now maybe it’s just best to let Beca do her thing while Chloe sings along to the majority of songs that come on the radio throughout the drive. 

The redhead can’t help but think about Beca the entire time despite the younger girl literally being sat right next to her. She knew better than to interrupt Beca’s train of thought in times like these so she just let her own mind wander for the remainder of the ride. 

//

“We’re here,” Chloe whispers as she pulls the car up to where they’re supposed to park. “Or at least almost.”

“We walk from here,” Beca mumbles simply. Chloe can’t quite tell if it’s a statement or a question so she just nods her head in response. She watches as Beca hops out of the car and reaches back in to grab the simple urn that contained what was left of Jesse and the tear that slipped down Beca’s face didn’t go by unnoticed. 

“It’s just a little ways this way,” Chloe says pointing towards the direction they’re supposed to walk in. 

Silence falls between them easily throughout the walk and with each and every step it gets harder for the both of them. Chloe puts a hand on Beca’s lower back to keep her moving at a steady pace and honestly she’s doing it for her own comfort as well. The two girls stop once they get close enough to the edge and just admire the view.

“It’s beautiful,” Chloe whispers.

“It is,” Beca agrees as she wipes the tears from her face. “Jesse would have loved it.”

“For sure.”

“You would have loved this, dude,” Beca mumbles as she pops the top off the urn and holds it between her two hands. She looks at her distorted face in the metal growing suddenly unsure of this whole thing. 

“Jesse was a good man,” Chloe says finally snapping Beca from her trance. “And he would have loved this whole thing. He deserved such a longer life.”

“He did, didn’t he? This is so unfair, Swanson. You were supposed to be my best friend for life. You were supposed to have a family and our kids would have been best friends, too. And this sucks. You’re not here to kick me in the butt when I’m ignoring my feelings or to get me to admit to all the things we both know I’d rather hide from. You deserved so much more life,” Beca says with tears now streaming down her face. “But at least I’ve been able to give you your cliche movie ending.”

“It’s okay, Becs,” Chloe whispers as she wraps her arms around Beca. 

“I love you, Jesse,” Beca sobs. “I will never forget about you.”

“I love you too Jess,” Chloe adds in quietly. “And neither will I.” 

“We love you, dude,” Beca repeats breathing in a shaky breath as she moves to spread the ashes in the canyon. Chloe kept her hands anchored on Beca’s sides for security and the second Beca was finished she whipped around and went right into Chloe’s arms letting the urn go crashing onto the ground. “He’s gone, Chlo.”

“I know, honey. It’s going to be okay,” Chloe mumbles into Beca’s hair. “We’re gonna be okay.”

“Okay,” Beca cries out wrapping her arms tightly around Chloe. 

“We’re going to be okay,” Chloe repeats rubbing the other girl’s back gently as she tries to calm down. 

“I know,” Beca whispers in response. Even though her voice is shaky from the tears Chloe knows that she’s telling the truth and that’s all she can really ask for.

“Let’s get you to the hotel, okay?’ Chloe says as she leads Beca away from the canyon and back to the car. All Beca can manage is a nod in response but the redhead wasn’t expecting all that much. 

//

The next morning when Beca is safely in the shower Chloe overhears her singing Don’t You (Forget About Me) and lets herself crumble into tears. She’s kept herself quite put together around Beca because she needs her to be but because of that she hadn’t had much opportunity to cry. Only when Beca has been in the shower or with someone else had she let herself succumb to her sadness over his loss. He deserved so much more than what he got and his words to her not long before the surgery still repeat in her mind on loop. His voice saying “Take care of her, will you?” will forever be in embedded in her brain. And she damn well intends on always being there for Beca no matter what.

Chloe pulls herself together before Beca gets out of the bathroom. She does her best to make it look like she hasn’t been crying but she knows Beca well enough to know that she’ll see right through it. Beca gives her a solemn smile that she easily returns but no words are exchanged between them. After all the years of being friends there are times when no words are necessary for them to understand each other and this moment is easily one of them. 

The first leg of the trip is spent mostly in silence. Same goes for their first night at the hotel on the return trip. The second day of driving isn’t all that bad either. There’s some singing and small conversation here and there. It’s on the third day that Chloe decides it’s time to play another game to pass the time. 

“Ready?” Chloe asks after she turns the radio down.

“For what?” Beca questions clearly confused by the question. 

“Things the pilot wishes they hadn’t said with the intercom on. And go,” Chloe says with a point to Beca. She smiles for a minute composing her thoughts but goes off easily. 

“Once I was talking to my co-pilot about my girl,” she starts putting on a fake voice that could easily convince Chloe she was an actual announcer of some kind. “And I was telling him about how I couldn’t wait to get home to fuck her for the first time in a week. I was going off about doing this and that when one of the attendants rushed in yelling about how the intercom was on. I was mortified. I threw out a quick apology and shut if off. My co-pilot couldn’t stop laughing for the rest of the flight and he still can’t get over it.”

The two of them burst out laughing once she was finished. Somewhere in the midst of them laughing both girls knew for certain that they would be okay again. And maybe this little improv game might just be a huge part of that process.

**Author's Note:**

> any and all comments much appreciated
> 
> come and bug me at noahsthetic.tumblr.com and heya I take prompts now so hit me up :)


End file.
